Mirrorball

The Ambulance Box

Nuclear Submarines

Adding a Distant Voice
Distant Voices -- a one-day virtual poetry festival. I’m delighted to be reading at Distant Voices, the StAnza Virtual Poetry Festival on Saturday 14 November. It’s a free event linking up poets and poetry from 12 cities and towns across the world, from Mumbai to Sacramento, and streaming them live into The Byre Theatre, St Andrews — StAnza’s usual hub venue — and via webcast

But No Cigar
Natural Mechanical Yesterday, the winner of the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize was announced as JO Morgan for Natural Mechanical. It’s a fine book and a deserving winner. A book-length narrative poem that so deftly handles shifts in time, perspective and voice w

LBF 09
The reason for the shortness of breathing space mentioned in the previous post was, of course, Linlithgow Book Festival. LBF is now in its fourth year and simply going from strength to strength. This year, I was nowhere near as involved in organising and running it as I was the previous two but, aside from retaining responsibility for the festival’s online presence, I ran a workshop and compered the open mic on the Saturday, and read with four other West Lothian-based poets on the Sunday. With 10 participants, the workshop was full. It was lovely to have two returning particip

Northern Lights
Feels like I’ve hardly had time to breathe since last week’s reading in Aberdeen, where Rob A Mackenzie and I read for Dead Good Poets. In Books and Beans, they certainly have a good venue: a good space with a clear acoustic and a great chai latte! The evening kicked off with half an hour’s open mic. It ranged from 2009 Foyle Young Poet

Linlithgow Book Festival 2009
It’s just over a week to Linlithgow Book Festival 2009. The festival has managed to attract another great line-up on the usual funding shoestring, so please support it. I’ll be running a workshop on the Saturday morning, compering the open mic event on the Sunday evening and reading along with Jane McKie, Alistair Findlay, Douglas Watt and Dennis O’Donnell on the Sunday afternoon. Events are priced individually (see the link above). Information on buying tickets is